If you want to read the complete record of our adventure, you can go back to the first post and read everything sequentially. However, the overview of major events is as follows (in reverse chronological order):
February 20, 2008: Exactly two months after we applied to join the French national healthcare program, we received a letter stating that we’d been accepted (along with what the cost will be—not cheap, let’s say). In fact, our coverage was made retroactive to the day we applied.
February 15, 2008: Joe received his French driver’s license in the mail, exactly six weeks after passing his road test.
January 4, 2008: Joe took the road test for his French driver’s license. He had to wait until the following day to get the test results (he passed!) in the mail. The actual license itself is mailed later.
December 22–30, 2007: Flew to Pennsylvania for Joe’s father’s funeral.
December 20, 2007: Submitted our applications to join CMU (Couverture Maladie Universelle), the French national healthcare program. We were told that it could take two months for our applications to be processed.
December 6, 2007: Joe took the written portion of the exam for his French driver’s license. Passed on his first try!
October 22, 2007: Received our cartes de séjour at last! We could have picked them up the previous week, except that the transit strike limited the hours the office was open (as well as our transportation flexibility).
October 11, 2007: Joe started driving classes at the Fehrenbach Driving School to get his French driver’s license. Cost: 1,000 € (yowch!)
September 24, 2007: Underwent the mandatory physicals (including chest X-rays, vision tests, and a quick once-over by a doctor) to get the medical clearance certificates we need in order to obtain our cartes de séjour.
September 13, 2007: We had our actual appointments at the Préfecture to submit the applications for our cartes de séjour.
July 5, 2007: First visit to the Préfecture de Police; made appointments to apply for our cartes de séjour.
July 1, 2007: Flew to Paris. Arrived on July 2.
June 28–30, 2007: Finished packing, cleaned our apartment, made a few last-minute trips to our storage unit, and said goodbye to our friends.
June 27, 2007: Sent a wire transfer to our new landlord with our deposit and the remainder of our first month’s rent.
June 26, 2007: Purchased renter’s insurance (see Finding an apartment in Paris).
June 22 & 25, 2007: Took our cat to the vet to get the necessary paperwork signed, then went to the official USDA vet to get that paperwork certified (see Clawing through the red tape: The formalities of importing a pet).
June 5, 2007: Began purchasing new computer equipment to bring with us.
June 2007: Visits to doctor, ophthalmologist, etc. for final check-ups before we leave.
May 31, 2007: Made changes to our business to facilitate running it in France.
May 30, 2007: Set up new bank accounts.
May 29, 2007: Decided how to handle telephone service. See Taking our phone service with us (or not) and Getting French cell phone numbers.
May 25, 2007: Made arrangements to deal with our postal mail.
May 23, 2007: Exactly 7 weeks after submitting our applications, we picked up our visas. Wow, it’s really real now.
May 22, 2007: The consulate called to say our visas had been approved. Yay!
April–June 2007: Worked on getting rid of stuff we couldn’t take.
April–May 2007: Dealt with cat transportation. Yes, we brought our cat too! That made travel arrangements more complicated. But we figured it out. See Clawing through the red tape: The formalities of importing a pet and Flying the furry skies: Finding transportation for our cat.
April 17, 2007: Bought our plane tickets. Of course we’d have to choose the middle of tourist season, when the rates were most expensive! Ack. But after extensive Web searching, we came up with a pretty good deal. See Dealing with airfare sticker shock.
April 4, 2007: Third visit to the consulate. Once again, we made appointments to submit our visa applications. This time, the visit went perfectly! We turned in our paperwork, gave them our photos, and paid the application fee. We were also fingerprinted. We were told that from this point, it usually takes 2 months to get the visas.
March 2007: Regrouped. It wasn’t easy, but we managed to put together some new & improved documentation that, we hoped, would satisfy the consulate based on our most recent, unpleasant visit.
March 7, 2007: Second visit to the consulate. Based on what we learned at our first visit, we took a huge stack of documentation and went to apply for our visas. Unfortunately, that visit didn’t go well, and we didn’t actually submit our applications then.
March 1, 2007: Purchased health insurance that will cover us in France. See Gateway to France: Finding the right health insurance plan.
March 1, 2007: After weeks of looking, decided on an apartment to rent in Paris and began submitting the necessary paperwork. See Finding an apartment in Paris.
February 14, 2007: First visit to the French consulate. We had several questions about applying for visas for which we couldn’t find answers online or in books, so we went to the local consulate in San Francisco to ask them in person. The answers we got were encouraging and helpful. See Looking back: Our first visit to the French consulate.
January 2007: We spent the month in Indonesia and Hong Kong—a last big vacation before buckling down to concentrate on the move to France.
June 2006–December 2006: We both worked on building up our business so that we’d have enough income to support ourselves in France, and Morgen quit her day job. We also spent a lot of this time planning a special month-long trip to Indonesia to celebrate Joe’s 40th birthday.
January–June 2006: We read as much as we could, both online and in books, about moving to and living in France.
January 2006: Morgen proposed the idea of moving to France, and we almost immediately decided to make that our goal. Numerous long discussions ensued. See La Chose Intéressante du Jour.